FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 2026
Unless you're watching Fox: Who will control the Senate next year?
We have no idea. If we were somehow forced to bet, we'd bet that the GOP will retain control, but it seems to us that old rules of thumb concerning such predictions have never seemed quite so old.
In yesterday morning's report, we reported this new fact:
El-Sayed is ahead by seven—unless you're watching Fox!
That bit of whimsy concerned one part of the clowning which had occurred on the previous day's edition of The Five.
Leave it to the children! During their discussion of a recent statement by Chuck Schumer, Emily Compagno was incoherent and Harold Ford was an embarrassing mess, with Dana Perino ruling the roost.
Along the way, we noted the fact that even if Michigan falls, observers have begun to say that there are now several ways Democrats could imaginably end up in control of the Senate.
Today, Sarah Rumpf discusses this state of affairs over at Mediaite. Headline included, her report starts like this:
Cook Political Report Finds Democrats Have ‘Multiple Paths’ to Take the Senate
The Cook Political Report updated its ratings for the upcoming midterms, predicting that Democrats now have “multiple paths” to take back the Senate majority, especially with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) dragging down Republicans.
The GOP’s grasp on majority control of the House and Senate hangs in the balance this November, and political prognosticators and pollsters have been highlighting several states that are in play, including the Lone Star State, where Texas State Rep. James Talarico (D) is facing off against Paxton to succeed the incumbent, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).
[...]
The new shifts, [Cook's Jessica] Taylor said, mean “there are multiple paths now for Democrats to Senate majority,” so even if they lose tough races in Maine or Michigan, for example, they could still take the Senate.
It was “still a very narrow path” and Cook was now rating the overall Senate majority as a Toss Up, said Taylor. It “still might slightly favor Republicans,” she continued, “but it is an increasingly competitive opportunity for Democrats.”
The Cook Report isn't always right. But that's what the Cook Report says.
Like the performers on The Five, we have no way of knowing what will happen in November. Unlike the silly stars of The Five, we do know how to describe what Chuck Schumer recently said to the Washington Post.
Overall, the clowning on The Five is an undisguised assault on the very possibility of the American project. Last night, we forced ourselves to watch a large chunk of Jesse Watter Primetime, which operates from the sludge-filled basement found beneath the National Tabloid / Slag Heap Building.
The Fox News Channel is a disgrace. So are the endless Blue American news orgs which are unwilling to report and discuss what the messengers do over there.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about Fox News, but the Dumbocrat media (that is a dozen times bigger than Fox News) clowning is nothing like "assault on the very possibility" of anything.
It's just the usual Dumbocrat clowning, that we got used to over the years, and learned to ignore long time ago...
I don't follow any of it.
DeleteThe usual Repuke clowning involves forever midEast wars and destroying the economy. Watcha gonna do about that Mao?
DeleteThe point of this essay is for Somerby, a supposed liberal, to say he would bet the Democrats won’t retake the Senate, even though Cook now says it is a tossup. Who bets against his own team? A lying liar like Somerby does.
ReplyDeleteFox is not a good news source. No one on the left needs to pay attention to it. Blue media is too busy reporting to waste a minute on Fox. Somerby knows this. Why does he come here day after day to berate blue media for not watching Fox. I would bet he is being paid to do it, as an influencer.
ReplyDelete"So are the endless Blue American news orgs which are unwilling to report and discuss what the messengers do over there."
ReplyDeleteCan someone list the "endless Blue American news orgs" Somerby is alluding to? Can Somerby himself? Doesn't he usually demand that people name names?
The ones Somerby has previously mentioned are not blue media but mainstream "legacy" media, such as the New York Times (his main focus) and cable news such as MS Now (singling out Morning Joe now that Maddow is no longer on daily). Sometimes he will complain about some caller on C-Span. Somerby never mentions any of the actual liberal or blue sources. He frequently confuses opinion writers with reporters. More often, he complains about Tarlov on Gutfeld or some liberal guest on a right wing show.
DeleteIn other words, there are no Blue American news orgs, except -- sort of -- corporate MSNBC. I'm not one of these deranged Somerby haters, but goddamn, this "Blue news org" thing is wild shit.
DeleteNo MG. Somerby is misidentifying the corporate legacy media as "blue media" when there is an actual blue media that Somerby never mentions at all. The actual blue media is now independent media and it includes podcasters and substack writers along with a slew of left-leaning and far-left publications. If you visit Ad Fontes, https://adfontesmedia.com/, and click on their media bias interactive chart, you will see who is classified as lefty and who is not. The sources that Somerby calls blue are actually centrist and corporate. For example, Somerby never mentions Meidas Touch, Pod Save America, or David Pakman, with audiences as large as Joe Rogan. These would be comparable left wing sources. Instead, he keeps complaining about the NY Times as lefty when it led the campaigns against Hillary Clinton, Biden and Kamala Harris and even now defends Trump by undermining left-wing candidates making progress in the midterms.
DeleteSomerby is so far removed from actual left wing thought and talking points that his chastising of blue America becomes a farce. Blue media exists but Somerby does not follow it. This is an ongoing theme with Somerby. He says blue media ignores something and then commenters here post the cites disproving Somerby's allegation, which Somerby never acknowledges and never stops claiming. It is tiresome and makes Somerby look very foolish, unless your whole world is Gutfeld.
A bunch of podcasters and substack writers are not "news orgs." And the reach of such people is limited anyway, since they are only talking to people who already think like they do. The meat is still in traditional media -- the TV, and what was once newspapers. Any of the major networks reaches more people in a day than all the liberal podcasts and substack articles combined do in a week.
DeleteGoogle, is it true that “the major networks reach more people in a day than all the liberal podcasts and substack articles combined do in a week”?
DeleteGOOGLE: “No, that statement is not accurate. While major broadcast and cable television networks still command massive daily audiences, top-tier liberal and progressive podcasts (such as Pod Save America or MeidasTouch) and prominent Substack networks collectively reach tens of millions of people weekly, meaning the combined digital and audio audience easily surpasses the daily footprint of legacy television when aggregated across a full week”
Anything else you’d like to pull out of your ass, MG?
"Tens of millions of people." Tens of millions of people vote in elections, and maybe a quarter of them are liberals; of those, how many listen to liberal podcasts in a week? And THEN you get to the issue of audience overlap. Instead of pulling shit out of AI's ass and then eating it, try to use whatever intellectual facilities you were cursed with. You might even improve them, herculean task though it seems.
DeleteThanks, Cecelia.
DeleteWhatever manipulation you do with figures applies as well to Somerby's fraudulent idea of blue media. If anyone is pulling nonsense from his ass, it is Somerby.
Delete9:40. That was a fail. You just make shit up and expect others to find it palatable.
DeleteIf there were a restaurant in my neighborhood that served awful food, I wouldn't write to the local newspaper insisting that the other restaurants speak up about how terrible that particular restaurant was. I would chastise them for not dropping their own business so that they could focus on reviling the worst restaurant. It would make no sense to do that, especially if it meant neglecting their own customers.
ReplyDeleteBut this is what Somerby demands that blue media do, except it is a media business and not a food place that Somerby thinks should drop its own news gathering and spend its time monitoring its competition (except that Fox isn't really competition since they serve up propaganda instead of nourishing information).
Somerby is as demented as Trump. The main difference is that Trump can do a lot more harm than Somerby with his oddball rants here.
Clever analogy, but it doesn't quite work, does it?
DeleteA major news outlets role is to report on all matters related to the public interest, including (and not limited to) politics, elections, trends and changes in public policy, and the influential people and organizations with influence over public decision-making.
Generally, restaurants don't dabble in educating the public about nutrition, farm policy, or crop yields--although a few do! Instead, they focus on serving meals.
Our Gracious Host has long held that the malign influence of Fox is an issue of national importance.
But is it?
DeleteHe has long held that there is truth behind Gutfeld’s jokes.
DeleteThe party of free speech Secretary of Not-a-war fired the editor in chief and a reporter from Stars and Stripes Magazine because King Orange Chickenshit and Whiskey Pete were embarrassed by accurate reporting of their gross incompetence and mismanagement. Anyone know a blog that comments on the press?
ReplyDeleteWhen cruelty becomes common, compassion looks radical.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.resistprint.com/
Somerby urges compassion but only for Republicans, such as Trump and now Natalie Harp. He never urges compassion for immigrants or the poor or deployed sailors or anyone who isn't a perpetrator of abuses against others. I think Somerby has a grave misunderstanding of what compassion is about -- it isn't meant to excuse wrongdoing or protect evil doers from accountability for their actions.
Someone like Trump, who is too narcissistic and lacking in empathy to identify with those needing compassion, shouldn't be accorded compassion himself out of some mistaken Christian impulse, or inability to evaluate our obligation to do good.
If Trump had any compassion, he would not be exterminating wild horses on our prairies. There would be no ICE at airports arresting people over paperwork and sending them to countries where they have never lived, know no one, and cannot speak the language, without money or resources. It is not compassion to forgive Trump for this stuff. It is stupidity.
Meanwhile, if Somerby thinks El-Sayed is radical, it is because he himself is confused about what compassion is.
Even AI has more sense than Somerby:
"Arguments Against or Limits to Compassion
Prioritizing Victims: Focusing deep sympathy on an offender can feel like a betrayal of the people they hurt.
The Need for Accountability: Justice requires real consequences, legal penalties, and public safety measures to stop further harm.
Protecting Society: Some actions are so destructive that society's primary duty must be restraint and defense rather than rehabilitation or empathy."
References to one's religion or God is meant to excuse one's wrongdoing or protect them from accountability for their actions.
DeleteRobert Reich is not afraid to say it:
ReplyDelete"Trump’s rage at opponents has now morphed into an attack on a group for merely trying to issue a report, the conclusions of which he finds offensive. No sane president would do this.
I’m going to say this as clearly as I can: Trump’s mind has gone. He is capable of doing almost anything, and evidently the people around him are unable to control him. His continuation in the presidency constitutes a clear and present danger to the United States. The 25th amendment must be invoked, or he needs to be impeached and convicted of high crimes and misdemeanors. Now."
This is what Somerby should have been saying himself. He gets it that Trump is loco, but he won't call for his removal. Others are not as cowardly.
Delete